Developers are increasingly seeking new ways of using the various services available on networks such as the Internet to more quickly and efficiently develop software solutions. Developers commonly utilize integrated development environments (IDEs) to assist with software development. Typically, a software developer will install an integrated development environment on the developer's computer system.
However, using such integrated development environments that are installed on the developer's computer may not be appropriate in all circumstances. For example, an organization with a large number of software developers may have to purchase and provide integrated development environments for each software developer. Each developer's computer may have to be maintained and updated to support the locally-installed integrated development environment. Furthermore, each developer's computer may need specific computing resources (e.g., memory, storage, processing power, operating system software) to support the operation of the locally-installed integrated development environment.
In addition, a locally-installed integrated development environment may limit the ability for local developers to collaborate or share code with other developers (e.g., while working on a large software project). For example, developers may be located in different countries or may be spread across different parts of the world. In such a situation, code sharing and version control can be difficult if the developers are using local integrated development environments (e.g., the developers may need to upload and synchronize code on a daily or nightly basis).
Therefore, there exists ample opportunity for improvement in technologies related to online software development environments.